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Populär Culture Review
allowed us to reach out from our rooms to the world and “made it legitimate to care
and called on us to act” (72).
The 1980s was the epitome of charity rock in many different aspects. As
Cloonan and Street said, the rock stars became part of show business and
“transferred the conscience that was part of rock to the worthy enterprise of
fundraising” (232). This is the power of “togethemess” and “belonging” in the age of
globalism. The African crisis has affected millions of people in their ways of
thinking, and one unique quality about Live Aid, Band Aid, and USA for Affica is
that they all enlisted the efforts of celebrities and musicians commonly associated
with rebellious attitudes and self-indulgence but not necessarily with fundraising and
caring.
Many more charity efforts ensued and the trend peaked in the mid and late
1980s. Following the Live Aid’s US $150 million fundraising efforts, the second
half of the 1980s saw some identical charity ventures. While this endless array of
projects of the decade could easily be accused of trivializing human crises, it also
opened up possibilities for cultural politics that were previously unmatched. The
projects such as Dionne Warwick and Friends (1985), Artists United Against
Apartheid (1985), and Farm Aid (1985) all succeeded in drawing in the international
audience, following the mega-success of Live Aid.
On a similar note, the proliferation of Philanthropie music events catalyzed
a response from virtually every sector of the music industry, including
managements, Promoters, record-labels, and producers. More importantly, it was the
musicians and audiences from all around the world that worked together for the
causes at issue. I assert that the all-star format of these events, which featured
arguably some of the most populär acts of the 1980s, if not of all-time, was a crucial
factor that made many of these events such a massive worldwide success.
The longevity of such successful projects aforementioned—all of which
saw the resurrection of the original events in one way or another in later years—
transcended generation, space, culture, and nationality. These events demonstrated
the rock music’s staying power, and its power goes beyond the music itself.
Considering that any form of low culture, including rock music, has historically been
“regarded by the dominant position in th e cultural field as inferior and non artistic”
(Regev 98), the global mass appeal of charity events in the 1980s was a triumphant
moment in our history. When it comes to the involvement of rock music in charity,
the emotional appeal of the decade is perhaps best exemplified on the DVD package
of Live Aid. The line reads, “This DVD saves lives.”
The 1990s and 2000s: Shifting Gears
In general, the last two decades were characterized by a combination of
many different social, political, and cultural factors. They include the new media
such as the Internet, the dissolution of communism, and the stable economy. The
theme of globalization continued to impact the world, and the end of the Cold War
signaled the beginning of a new era, as the contest between capitalism and socialism
came to an end. Also, there has been a series of uncontrollable and unexpected